Stay Alive in Sonic Style
Stay Alive is a 2006 horror film directed by William Brent Bell, who cowrote it with Matthew Peterman. It was produced by McG, co-produced by Hollywood Pictures and released on March 24, 2006 in the US. In the U.S. the film was rated PG-13 for horror violence, disturbing images, language and brief sexual and drug content. This was the first film in five years released by Hollywood Pictures. Plot Loomis Crowley (Chris) is an avid player of an unreleased video game called Stay Alive which characters explore a mansion haunted by a murderous woman in a red dress. After being "killed" in the game by being hung from a chandelier, he has nightmares and wakes one night to find his roommates brutally slain. He backs away from the carnage, falls off a staircase and is hanged from a chandelier. After Loomis' funeral, his sister offers Loomis' possessions to his friends. They discover the game Stay Alive among them, and decide to hold a group play session that night in Loomis' memory. Most of the friends gather at the home of Hutch (Sonic), but Miller (Espio) decides to play remotely from his office. The game is activated by voice, and the assembled players are required to recite an incantation, "The Prayer of Elizabeth". Once the game begins, they learn that evil spirits in the game are repelled by wild roses. Miller's avatar is stabbed in the throat by the woman in red who's named "Elizabeth Bathory". Miller is upset and the players agree to end play for the night. As Miller is preparing to go home, he senses someone in the office with him. He was stabbed to death in the throat. Hutch, who worked with Miller, is questioned at work by two detectives, Thibodeaux and King. He goes to an Internet cafe to meet the previous night's players. Phineas (Vector) is playing Stay Alive there. Phineas seems unmoved by Miller and Loomis' deaths, and the rest of the friends abandon him and leave. As they discuss the deaths, Hutch realizes that Miller and Loomis died the same way their avatars did in the game. He warns Phineas to stop playing. Hutch and October (Rouge) recall what they know about the historical Elizabeth Bathory that she feared growing old and bathed in the blood of young women to maintain her youth and beauty. Phineas, driving to meet them, sees an apparition in the road. He swerves to avoid it and crashes his car. While emerging from the wreck, he was run down by a black horse-drawn carriage. Thibodeaux and King suspect that the game is connected to the deaths and King decides to play Stay Alive. Hutch tries to dissuade him, but Thibodeaux explains that the alternative is to consider Hutch their main suspect. King's avatar is decapitated before Hutch can turn off the game. King is later decapitated in his pickup truck. October, Hutch, Swink (Tails) and Abigail (Amy Rose) determine to end the game's "curse". They find the address of Jonathan Malkus (Scourge), the developer of Stay Alive, hidden in Loomis' computer. While exploring Malkus' estate, they find a doll of Bathory and a toy black carriage in the barn. Malkus confronts them and they explain their fears about his game and its connection to the four deaths. Malkus appears stunned and he sends them to a local author who wrote a book about Bathory titled The Lady of Blood. Hutch and Abigail meet the author in a cafe. They discuss the legend of Elizabeth Bathory. The author tells them that Bathory was walled up in a tower on her plantation as punishment for her gruesome acts and that she vowed to return one day and seek revenge on all men, women and children. Abigail asks if Bathory can be summoned magically, but the author rebuffs her. She warns them against toying with "the evil of Elizabeth Bathory". October and Swink conduct their own research. October tells Hutch that the only way to kill Bathory is to trap her soul in her physical body by driving three nails into her heart, throat and head. Then she must be burned alive. Swink learns from a newscast that they are all suspects in the deaths. The players secretly meet at Loomis’ house to formulate a plan. October attacks Bathory at a construction site with a nailgun, but Bathory is only a spirit and the nails have no effect. October tries to flee but the spirit entangles her with a chain and slashes her throat. October's friends arrive too late to save her life. Hutch hypothesizes that "The Prayer of Elizabeth" is a magical spell that summons Bathory's vengeful spirit. Hutch and Abigail return to explore Malkus’ home while Swink plays the game to distract Bathory. Hutch and Abigail discover that Malkus's estate is the Bathory plantation. Swink verifies than anything that happens in the game will happen in the real world. Bathory's spirit traps Abigail and is about to kill her when Hutch and Swink save her simultaneously in the real world and in the game. Swink is chased by a black carriage and appears to be killed. Hutch and Abigail are chased by the same carriage in the real world, but they survive by collecting wild roses. Hutch and Abigail locate Elizabeth’s crypt in a large mausoleum, which conceals an underground passage to Bathory's black tower. They evade the spirits of Bathory's victims and Bathory herself and arrive at a door into the tower. Hutch enters the tower, and the door slams shut behind him. Abigail is left outside the tower with one rose while Bathory draws near her, and Hutch has no option but to proceed into the tower. At the top of the tower, Hutch finds Bathory's preserved corpse. He drives three nails into the corpse just as Bathory's spirit is about to kill Abigail. Now trapped inside her body, Bathory attacks Hutch. He uses her reflection to drive her mad, and then sets her on fire. He is trapped in the conflagration and his pyrophobia incapacitates him. Swink, who survived the carriage by leaping into a rosebush, bursts into the room with Abigail and they escape the tower as Bathory is incinerated. Elsewhere, a video game store celebrates the official release of Stay Alive. An employee inserts a copy into a gaming console and recites "The Prayer of Elizabeth" to launch the game. Cast Sonic the Hedgehog t.jpg|Sonic as Hutch MacNeil|link=Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic X) Tails smiled 4.jpg|Tails as Swink Sylvania|link=Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic X) Amy smiled 2.jpg|Amy as Abigail|link=Amy Rose Vector was shocked.jpg|Vector as Phineus Bantum|link=Vector the Crocodile Silver the Hedgehog 5.jpg|Silver as Detective Thibodeaux|link=Silver the Hedgehog Christopher Thorndyke.jpg|Chris as Loomis Crowley|link=Christopher Thorndyke Rouge the Bat 14.jpg|Rouge as October Bantum|link=Rouge the Bat Espio was eating a cake.jpg|Espio as Miller Banks|link=Espio the Chameleon Victoria the hedgehog.jpg|Victoria as Elizabeth Bathory|link=Victoria the Hedgehog Mushu.jpg|Mushu as King|link=Mushu Category:Sonic Style Movies Category:Horror Movies